The Price of Silence
Chapter 06 - The Price of Silence
Eleanor hired a private investigator the next morning.
Not to follow Victor.
Not yet.
She wanted Daniel Cross.
By noon, she also called an attorney named Samuel Pierce, who had represented her father before Harbor Mobility existed.
Samuel was seventy-four and had no patience for corporate politeness.
After hearing Eleanor's story, he removed his glasses.
“You realize what you're suggesting.”
“Yes.”
“If defective products were knowingly sold, you're talking about civil liability, possibly criminal exposure.”
“I understand.”
“And as founder and largest individual shareholder, this could destroy you financially.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Would you like me to pretend I didn't hear that?”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“Now you sound like your father.”
That afternoon, Rachel called.
Her voice was shaking.
“Someone came to my apartment.”
“Who?”
“A lawyer.”
“From Harbor?”
“He didn't say.”
The man had offered Rachel $250,000.
All she had to do was sign an agreement stating that her previous safety concerns had been “misunderstandings based on incomplete testing.”
There was also a confidentiality clause.
Eleanor felt fury rise through her.
“Did you sign?”
Rachel was silent.
“Rachel?”
“Do you know what $250,000 means to me?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Of course she did.
It meant rent.
Security.
Noah's college fund.
A chance for Rachel to become an engineer again without working two jobs.
“No,” Eleanor said quietly. “I probably don't.”
“My car has 190,000 miles.”
“I understand.”
“No, Eleanor. You don't.”
Rachel began crying.
“I have forty-three dollars until Friday.”
Eleanor said nothing.
Rachel had every right to take the money.
She had already sacrificed enough.
“Whatever you decide,” Eleanor said, “I won't judge you.”
That evening, Rachel sat at her kitchen table staring at the settlement agreement.
Noah climbed into the chair beside her.
“Are we rich now?”
Rachel laughed through her tears.
“Not exactly.”
“What is it?”
“A difficult decision.”
Noah looked at the paper.
“Is it about the broken chairs?”
Rachel nodded.
He thought for a moment.
Then he opened his school notebook.
Inside was a drawing.
A wheelchair surrounded by people.
Above it, in a child's crooked handwriting, Noah had written:
FIX IT BEFORE SOMEBODY FALLS.
Rachel covered her mouth.
The next morning, she tore the settlement agreement in half.
Two hours later, Eleanor received a phone call.
It was her investigator.
“I found Daniel Cross.”
“Where is he?”
There was a pause.
“Ms. Grant, Daniel Cross isn't hiding.”
“Then why did he disappear?”
“Because three years ago, someone changed his identity inside Harbor's employment records.”
Eleanor gripped the phone.
“Why would someone do that?”
May you like
The investigator answered quietly.
“To make a dead man look like he resigned.”
